Bad news continues for Bob Hope Airport

Bob Hope Airport

Raul Roa / Staff Photographer

ARCHIVE PHOTO: Airline changes hit Burbank's Bob Hope Airport in February 2012. American Airlines halted its operations at Bob Hope. Staff cited this as a factor to explain some of the passenger declines. This past January, JetBlue Airways eliminated all daytime flights at the airport.

ARCHIVE PHOTO: Airline changes hit Burbank's Bob Hope Airport in February 2012. American Airlines halted its operations at Bob Hope. Staff cited this as a factor to explain some of the passenger declines. This past January, JetBlue Airways eliminated all daytime flights at the airport. (Raul Roa / Staff Photographer)

Dan Feger, the airport's executive director, gave his report quickly and none of the commissioners commented on the statistics.

Feger did tell commissioners that some of the decline could be attributed to the fact that 2012 was a leap year, and so February 2013 was one day – or roughly 3% – shorter by comparison.

So far this year, the airport has seen 575,717 passengers, a 10.4% drop from 642,789 passengers during the first two months of 2012.

The airport has been facing challenges with airline changes during the past 14 months.

In February 2012, American Airlines halted its operations at Bob Hope, a factor that has been cited repeatedly by staff to explain some of the passenger declines.

This past January, JetBlue Airways eliminated all daytime flights at the airport. There were 6,874 JetBlue passengers in February, compared to 21,075 in February 2012, a 67% drop.

In contrast, passenger numbers at other airports in the region didn't show a similar drop, increasing 6.1% at John Wayne Airport and basically holding steady with a 0.4% increase at Los Angeles International Airport. However, Ontario Airport, which has also been struggling with dwindling numbers of passengers, saw an 8.2% decline.

One relative bright spot for Bob Hope Airport was a decrease in parking revenues that was mild. Those numbers declined 3% in February, Feger said.

"I won't call it good news, but it's a positive note," Feger said.

He said that when the 2012 leap year is taken into account, parking revenues were essentially flat. The airport brought in roughly $1.39 million in February compared to $1.43 million in February 2012.

Parking revenues, which make up about 40% of the airport's total revenues, declined by 4.8% in January, but the drops were much higher during the last half of 2012.

Feger said the smaller parking-rate declines signaled that recent rate increases in the airport's parking lots are working.